Trace Metals in Soot and PM2.5 from Heavy-Fuel-Oil Combustion in a Marine Engine.

Heavy fuel oil (HFO) particulate matter (PM) emitted by marine engines is known to contain toxic heavy metals, including vanadium (V) and nickel (Ni). The toxicity of such metals will depend on the their chemical state, size distribution, and mixing state. Using online soot-particle aerosol mass spectrometry (SP-AMS), we quantified the mass of five metals (V, Ni, Fe, Na, and Ba) in HFO-PM soot particles produced by a marine diesel research engine. The in-soot metal concentrations were compared to in-PM2.5 measurements by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). We found that <3% of total PM2.5 metals was associated with soot particles, which may still be sufficient to influence in-cylinder soot burnout rates. Since these metals were most likely present as oxides, whereas studies on lower-temperature boilers report a predominance of sulfates, this result implies that the toxicity of HFO PM depends on its combustion conditions. Finally, we observed a 4-to-25-fold enhancement in the ratio V:Ni in soot particles versus PM2.5, indicating an enrichment of V in soot due to its lower nucleation/condensation temperature. As this enrichment mechanism is not dependent on soot formation, V is expected to be generally enriched within smaller HFO-PM particles from marine engines, enhancing its toxicity.

Mass killing under the guise of ECT: the darkest chapter in the history of biological psychiatry.

Following its inception, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), rapidly spread all over the world, including Nazi Germany. Paradoxically, at the same time, the euthanasia programme was started in Germany: the extermination of people with intellectual disabilities and severe psychiatric disorders. In Lower Austria, Dr Emil Gelny, who had been granted a specialist qualification in psychiatry after three months of clinical training, took control of two psychiatric hospitals, in Gugging and Mauer-Öhling. In 1944, he began systematically killing patients with an ECT machine, something that was not practised anywhere else before or after, and remains unprecedented in the history of convulsive therapy. He modified an ECT machine, adding extra electrodes, which he fastened onto a victim's wrists and ankles to administer lethal electric shocks.